Tag Archives: Hizbe Islami

Buddhists are protected by the Thai military from Islamic fanatics in southern Thailand

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The ongoing Islamic insurgency in southern Thailand continues and another nine Buddhists were killed by Islamic jihadists who desire an Islamic state. It is clear that while the insurgency ebbs and flows from many Islamic terrorist attacks to a decrease in activity, that the underlying insurgency remains and just waits to gather pace at any moment. Therefore, Islamic fanatics randomly kill Buddhists, school teachers, Buddhist priests, Muslims who work for institutions in southern Thailand, and members of the armed forces.

The level of hatred is clear by the wanton violence and brutality because the Islamic insurgents desire to spread fear in order to reach their Islamic goal. This goal applies to the complete Islamization of southern Thailand and the eradication of all Buddhists and Buddhist temples from the region of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.

In the past you had nationalistic sentiments to the insurgency because Thailand annexed the three Muslim provinces in 1902. However, while you had radical Islamic elements prior to 2001 it is clear that the insurgency had mainly nationalistic tones and the insurgents focused on the government and military of Thailand.

This policy changed from 2001 because now it became apparent that Islamic radicalization had taken root because of outside meddling and the role of Islamic institutions in other nations which were spreading the doctrine of Islamic jihad. Therefore, it now became open season for Muslim insurgents to kill Buddhists in southern Thailand and to kill Muslims who were deemed to be supporting the government of Thailand or supporting the status quo.

Since 2004 you have had over 4,300 lives lost in a brutal Islamic insurgency whereby Buddhist priests have been beheaded, children have been killed, and civilians are attacked in order to create a southern Thailand where no Buddhists remain. Moderate Muslim religious leaders also face death and the same applies to anyone who is deemed to be collaborating with the government of Thailand.

Zachary Abuza, who is the author of A Conspiracy of Silence, highlights the complete hatred of pamphlets which are used in order to intimidate the local Buddhist community.

Document 22 states “Dear every Siamese Buddhist Thai who lives near the police stations……I’ll give you three days for you to leave my land. Otherwise, I will kill, burn, destroy all Buddhist Thai property……The Buddhist Thai will never live in peace. If you leave the house, travel or go to work, you will die violently. I will wait for you for 24 hours, in every direction.” (Page 241)

Document 23 states “The Islamic warriors of Pattani announce the purpose that we will never stop killing the Siamese kafir (infidel) and will never stop destroying army weapons, the economy, politics, education and the Siamese kafir society until we regain the land of Pattani and establish the state of Pattani Darulslam. I ask for Muslim Malays to be the witnesses.” (Page 242) – A Conspiracy of Silence

Zachary Abuza in his book called Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (Crucible of Terror) also highlights the role of the madrasas (Islamic schools). He comments that “In their pursuit of the creation of Islamic states, many Southeast Asian jihadis established Islamic schools to indoctrinate, propagate, and recruit. The leaders of many militant groups in Southeast Asia, including the Laskar Jihad, Kampulan Mujahidin Malaysia, and Jemaah Islamiya, returned from Afghanistan and established a network of madrasas as the base of their operations and recruitment.”

Zachary Abuza also comments that “While the government has recently pledged more development funds for the restive south, the insurgency has never been about development. Sadly, as long as the conflict remains confined to the southernmost provinces, it will remain a low priority for the government, consumed with elite political machinations in Bangkok. And while Southern Thailand remains the single most lethal conflict in Southeast Asia, it remains a low priority for America and its allies in the region.”

Turning back to the role of radical Islamic madrasas, then it is clear that Islamists are being churned out of many Islamic institutions and this is causing mayhem. If national governments do not regulate these schools and maintain tight supervision or if an alternative system is not found, then little will change apart from more Islamic indoctrination and international jihadists. Therefore, the continuing breeding ground of Islamic hatred must be stopped and checked. This applies to radical organizations and madrasas which are intent on spreading this hatred and radical institutions can be found throughout the Muslim world and in democratic societies which are sleepwalking into an Islamic nightmare.

In another article that I wrote about southern Thailand I stated that “…whoever controls the mosque or madrasas is in a powerful position. It must be mentioned that not all madrasas are involved in hate inspired indoctrination, however, many are out of control and you have a state within a state and of course Pakistan is paying for this now because they allowed this dangerous situation to happen in the first place.”

B. Raman (Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi) comments about the role of Thai Muslims within the Islamic jihadist movement and the role of the Islamic madrasas.

B. Raman states that “The external inspiration has so far been mainly from Bangladesh and Pakistan, the main motivating organizations being the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), which has a presence both in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which has a presence only in Pakistan and not in Bangladesh. The extensive media reporting in Pakistan on the presence of foreign students in Pakistani madrasas, which followed the reports of the involvement of three British citizens of Pakistani origin in the London explosions of July 7,2005, has revealed the presence of nearly a thousand Pattanis in the Pakistani madrasas.”

”This has been a surprisingly large number. Till the Pakistani media gave an estimate of the number of Thai students in their madrasas, one was under the impression that the flow of Thai Muslims to the madrasas in Pakistan had considerably declined after the arrest of the brother of Hambali, the operational chief of the Jemaah Islamiya (JI), and some other Indonesians and Malaysians from madrasas in Karachi controlled by the LET and their deportation to their respective countries in 2003. Instructions had gone to the Thai Muslims after their deportation to go to Bangladesh thereafter for studies in the madrasas there since the Pakistani jihadi organisations, which are members of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front (IIF), were afraid that the Americans might be keeping a watch on the madrasas in Pakistan.”

“Many of these Thai Muslims have enrolled themselves in the madrasas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan, which are the hotbed of the activities of the Taliban and the Wahhabi-Deobandi organizations of Pakistan. Some of them have also undergone training in the jihadi training centres of the Taliban and Gulbuddin Heckmatyar’s Hizbe Islami (HEI) and have been participating in the current Taliban-HEI-Al Qaeda offensive in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the NWFP and Balochistan.” South Asia Analysis Group – Terrorism in southern Thailand by B. Raman (Paper no. 1501) which was published on 15/08/2005

In the first few weeks of January in 2011 you have had nine Buddhists being killed by Islamic terrorists and in a separate attack four members of the armed forces of Thailand were killed. Therefore, the Islamic insurgency continues to kill and spread fear in southern Thailand and many Buddhists have left in order to escape the ongoing Islamic insurgency.

It is clear that Islamists in southern Thailand desire a homeland whereby all Buddhists will be cleansed and then Islamic Sharia law will hold sway. At the same time it is abundantly clear that Islamic indoctrination from outside of Thailand is a serious issue and the same applies to the international nature of the global Islamic jihad. Therefore, the government of Thailand faces both an internal threat and the reality that external networks are fueling the fire.